Mahershala Ali to Star in Limited Series The Plot on Hulu
Academy Award-winning actor Mahershala Ali has signed on to star in Disney Onyx Collective’s limit series The Plot, which will air on Hulu. The series is an adaptation of the best-selling novel of the same name by Jean Hanff Korelitz. Abby Ajayi (Inventing Anna) will adapt the novel and serve as the showrunner and executive producer. Mimi Valdés and Amatus Karim Ali will also executive produce through their Know Wonder production company. Tara Duncan, president of Freeform and Onyx Collective, stated, “I was captivated with Hanff Korelitz’s book The Plot…Having the creative genius that is Mahershala Ali at the center of this mystery, is just a dream.”
Read Joel Coen’s Screenplay for The Tragedy of Macbeth
Apple and A24’s The Tragedy of Macbeth opened in theaters on December 25th, 2021, and on January 14th, the film was released for streaming on Apple TV+. Now, Joel Coen’s screenplay is available to read online as a part of Deadline‘s Read the Screenplay series. Coen was inspired to adapt the Shakespeare play after watching Frances McDormand perform Lady Macbeth at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre in 2016. “I kept thinking if I could get closer to this with a camera, it will be even more psychological and exciting,” he said. Coen’s screenplay keeps the majority of Shakespeare’s language from the original play in tact, and it plays up the noir elements. Coen said, “It seems to me The Tragedy of Macbeth prefigured many of the 20th century tropes of hardboiled fiction. It’s about a couple plotting a murder…And with all the witchcraft, it’s also a horror movie in its way. It has all these affinities with genre cinema, and it has some similarities to things I’ve done with my brother.”
Teens Come Out for Kuztown Banned Book Club
On January 12, a group of teens met at Firefly Bookstore in Kutztown, PA for the first meeting of the Kuztown Banned Book Club. The club was created by Joslyn Diffenbaugh, a 14-year-old Kutztown 8th grader, who was inspired to create the club after learning about the movement to ban books in schools nationwide and locally based on topics of race, gender identity and sexuality. Joslyn said, ““I wanted to make sure teens have access to books that they can personally relate to or have interest in and not to let groups in our community dictate what we can and cannot read.” Meeting will be held bi-weekly on Wednesday nights at 6:30 p.m. The next book they will be discussing is Angie Thomas’ The Hate You Give. For updates on this book club and other events, follow Firefly Bookstore on Facebook.
Right Wing Group Demands Censorship Action from Attorney General: This Week’s Book Censorship News
Here’s this week’s look at what books are being challenged across the US, and more book censorship news.